The chapters in this volume provide appoint of entry into the scholarship of reappraisal, whether from the perspective of the basic definitions of the terms and issues from the perspective of the ...
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The chapters in this volume provide appoint of entry into the scholarship of reappraisal, whether from the perspective of the basic definitions of the terms and issues from the perspective of the historiographical problems encountered by the study of post-Reformation Protestantism, or from the perspective of selected examples of Protestant thought as it developed into the era of orthodoxy. The first part of this book offers redefinitions or reappraisals of the phenomenon of Reformed orthodoxy and scholasticism. Part II contains six chapters that illustrate and develop the definitions and critiques of the first part in the form of concrete example. The chapters reflect the contents of the initial topics of the most Reformed theologies of the orthodox era, the prolegomena and the Scripture.Less

Richard A. Muller

Published in print: 2003-03-27

The chapters in this volume provide appoint of entry into the scholarship of reappraisal, whether from the perspective of the basic definitions of the terms and issues from the perspective of the historiographical problems encountered by the study of post-Reformation Protestantism, or from the perspective of selected examples of Protestant thought as it developed into the era of orthodoxy. The first part of this book offers redefinitions or reappraisals of the phenomenon of Reformed orthodoxy and scholasticism. Part II contains six chapters that illustrate and develop the definitions and critiques of the first part in the form of concrete example. The chapters reflect the contents of the initial topics of the most Reformed theologies of the orthodox era, the prolegomena and the Scripture.

The Reformation of Feeling looks beyond and beneath the formal doctrinal and moral demands of the Reformation in Germany in order to examine the emotional tenor of the programs that the ...
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The Reformation of Feeling looks beyond and beneath the formal doctrinal and moral demands of the Reformation in Germany in order to examine the emotional tenor of the programs that the emerging creeds—revised Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism/Reformed theology—developed for their members. As revealed by the surviving sermons from this period, preaching clergy of each faith both explicitly and implicitly provided their listeners with distinct models of a mood to be cultivated. To encourage their parishioners to make an emotional investment in their faith, all three drew upon rhetorical elements that were already present in late medieval Catholicism and elevated them into confessional touchstones. Looking at archival materials containing direct references to feeling, this book focuses on treatments of death and sermons on the Passion. It amplifies these sources with considerations of the decorative, liturgical, musical, and disciplinary changes that ecclesiastical leaders introduced during the period from the late fifteenth to the end of the sventeenth century. Within individual sermons, it also examines topical elements—including Jews at the crucifixion, the Virgin Mary's voluminous weeping below the Cross, and struggles against competing denominations—which were intended to arouse particular kinds of sentiment. Finally, it discusses surviving testimony from the laity in order to assess at least some Christians' reception of these lessons on proper devotional feeling. This book presents a cultural rather than theological or behavioral study of the broader movement to remake Christianity. As it demonstrates, in the eyes of the Reformation's formative personalities, strict adherence to doctrine and upright demeanor did not constitute an adequate piety. The truly devout had to engage their hearts in their faith.Less

Reformation of Feeling : Shaping the Religious Emotions in Early Modern Germany

Susan Karant-Nunn

Published in print: 2010-03-31

The Reformation of Feeling looks beyond and beneath the formal doctrinal and moral demands of the Reformation in Germany in order to examine the emotional tenor of the programs that the emerging creeds—revised Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism/Reformed theology—developed for their members. As revealed by the surviving sermons from this period, preaching clergy of each faith both explicitly and implicitly provided their listeners with distinct models of a mood to be cultivated. To encourage their parishioners to make an emotional investment in their faith, all three drew upon rhetorical elements that were already present in late medieval Catholicism and elevated them into confessional touchstones. Looking at archival materials containing direct references to feeling, this book focuses on treatments of death and sermons on the Passion. It amplifies these sources with considerations of the decorative, liturgical, musical, and disciplinary changes that ecclesiastical leaders introduced during the period from the late fifteenth to the end of the sventeenth century. Within individual sermons, it also examines topical elements—including Jews at the crucifixion, the Virgin Mary's voluminous weeping below the Cross, and struggles against competing denominations—which were intended to arouse particular kinds of sentiment. Finally, it discusses surviving testimony from the laity in order to assess at least some Christians' reception of these lessons on proper devotional feeling. This book presents a cultural rather than theological or behavioral study of the broader movement to remake Christianity. As it demonstrates, in the eyes of the Reformation's formative personalities, strict adherence to doctrine and upright demeanor did not constitute an adequate piety. The truly devout had to engage their hearts in their faith.

By 1750, a transition was beginning to take place in American Christianity. Americans began to replace traditional theology with public intellectual ideologies like republicanism and commonsense ...
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By 1750, a transition was beginning to take place in American Christianity. Americans began to replace traditional theology with public intellectual ideologies like republicanism and commonsense moral reasoning – views that had traditionally been seen as heterodox. This occurred in large parts because the traditional Puritan framework cracked and fragmented during the heated events of the colonial Great Awakening.Less

The Long Life and Final Collapse of the Puritan Canopy

Mark A. Noll

Published in print: 2002-11-14

By 1750, a transition was beginning to take place in American Christianity. Americans began to replace traditional theology with public intellectual ideologies like republicanism and commonsense moral reasoning – views that had traditionally been seen as heterodox. This occurred in large parts because the traditional Puritan framework cracked and fragmented during the heated events of the colonial Great Awakening.

The development of the federal theology of the late 16th and early 17th centuries was a significant transformation in Reformed theological thinking. According to the federal theologians, all of human ...
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The development of the federal theology of the late 16th and early 17th centuries was a significant transformation in Reformed theological thinking. According to the federal theologians, all of human history could be described using the rubric of a series of covenants, or foedera, beginning with a ‘covenant of works’ in the perfection of Eden and concluding with the new covenant fulfilled by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The new covenant was in effect the conclusion of the ‘covenant of grace’, and it was this which united the Old and New Testaments into one continuous epic of God's grace and mercy. While John Calvin and many earlier Reformers discussed the importance of the postlapsarian covenant of grace, they never taught the federal theology with its key identifying feature of a prelapsarian covenant. This book traces the prelapsarian covenant idea in Reformed theology from its first use by Zacharias Ursinus in 1562 to its flowering in 1590. Besides its origins, the implications of the federal theology for Reformed thinking are made clear, and it is shown that the idea of covenant could have important implications for areas such as church and state, the sacraments, the Puritan doctrine of conversion, the Christian Sabbath, and the doctrine of justification and Christian ethics. The federal theology is of considerable historical importance in intellectual history and forms the framework for much of the Reformed theology in the English-speaking world for three centuries.Less

The Origins of the Federal Theology in Sixteenth-Century Reformation Thought

David A. Weir

Published in print: 1990-03-01

The development of the federal theology of the late 16th and early 17th centuries was a significant transformation in Reformed theological thinking. According to the federal theologians, all of human history could be described using the rubric of a series of covenants, or foedera, beginning with a ‘covenant of works’ in the perfection of Eden and concluding with the new covenant fulfilled by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The new covenant was in effect the conclusion of the ‘covenant of grace’, and it was this which united the Old and New Testaments into one continuous epic of God's grace and mercy. While John Calvin and many earlier Reformers discussed the importance of the postlapsarian covenant of grace, they never taught the federal theology with its key identifying feature of a prelapsarian covenant. This book traces the prelapsarian covenant idea in Reformed theology from its first use by Zacharias Ursinus in 1562 to its flowering in 1590. Besides its origins, the implications of the federal theology for Reformed thinking are made clear, and it is shown that the idea of covenant could have important implications for areas such as church and state, the sacraments, the Puritan doctrine of conversion, the Christian Sabbath, and the doctrine of justification and Christian ethics. The federal theology is of considerable historical importance in intellectual history and forms the framework for much of the Reformed theology in the English-speaking world for three centuries.

Previous Reformed theologians had spoken of the doctrine of the covenant as one doctrine among many. With the rise of the federal theology historians have noted how the idea of covenant began to have ...
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Previous Reformed theologians had spoken of the doctrine of the covenant as one doctrine among many. With the rise of the federal theology historians have noted how the idea of covenant began to have a controlling influence in the systematic ordering of doctrine. The importance of the Fall is again emphasized in this schema. However, there was one controversy agitating the Reformed theology which serves as the backdrop against which the idea of a prelapsarian covenant developed: the problem of reconciling God's providential sovereignty and the Fall of Adam. It is the contention of this book that the doctrine of a foedus with Adam developed in response to this problem as a ‘milder’ orthodox elaboration and explanation of the seemingly harsh decretal doctrines of Theodore Beza.Less

The Background to the First Proposal of the Prelapsarian Covenant in Reformed Theology

David A. Weir

Published in print: 1990-03-01

Previous Reformed theologians had spoken of the doctrine of the covenant as one doctrine among many. With the rise of the federal theology historians have noted how the idea of covenant began to have a controlling influence in the systematic ordering of doctrine. The importance of the Fall is again emphasized in this schema. However, there was one controversy agitating the Reformed theology which serves as the backdrop against which the idea of a prelapsarian covenant developed: the problem of reconciling God's providential sovereignty and the Fall of Adam. It is the contention of this book that the doctrine of a foedus with Adam developed in response to this problem as a ‘milder’ orthodox elaboration and explanation of the seemingly harsh decretal doctrines of Theodore Beza.

An approach to Christian scholarship called “the integration of faith and learning” has been popular for several decades within evangelical Protestant academic circles. Originally developed by Arthur ...
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An approach to Christian scholarship called “the integration of faith and learning” has been popular for several decades within evangelical Protestant academic circles. Originally developed by Arthur Holmes and Nicholas Wolterstorff, it has recently been championed in the larger academy by people like George Marsden. With roots in Reformed theology, it stresses the importance of articulating a Christian “worldview.” This approach has many strengths, but it is not the only way of defining Christian scholarship and other models need to be developed.Less

More Than the “Integration” of Faith and Learning

Douglas JacobsenRhonda Hustedt Jacobsen

Published in print: 2004-04-22

An approach to Christian scholarship called “the integration of faith and learning” has been popular for several decades within evangelical Protestant academic circles. Originally developed by Arthur Holmes and Nicholas Wolterstorff, it has recently been championed in the larger academy by people like George Marsden. With roots in Reformed theology, it stresses the importance of articulating a Christian “worldview.” This approach has many strengths, but it is not the only way of defining Christian scholarship and other models need to be developed.

The last chapter looked at two-stage evidentialist apologetics, and examined some of the problems that face this approach to the incarnational narrative. Although it was argued that these problems do ...
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The last chapter looked at two-stage evidentialist apologetics, and examined some of the problems that face this approach to the incarnational narrative. Although it was argued that these problems do not mean that an evidentialist argument cannot be effective, they do provide good reason to examine an alternative theological account, one that lays stress on our knowledge of the historical Jesus as made possible through the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit, and makes evidence less central to the story. This alternative to the standard apologetic approach to incarnational knowledge is called here the Reformed account, since it is seen most clearly and prominently in the works of Protestant, and especially Reformed, theologians. For Reformed thinkers the historical knowledge that can be part of saving faith is derived from the Bible, and thus, the question of how we have such knowledge is basically the question of how we can know the Bible is the reliable revelation from God it is claimed to be by the Church; the Reformed creeds assert unanimously that this knowledge is due to the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The different sections of the chapter are: the Reformed emphasis on the testimony of the Holy Spirit; the epistemology of the Reformed account; epistemology supernaturalized; how can one know that a belief has a truth-conducive ground?; criteria for recognizing the work of the spirit; and, problems with the Reformed account.Less

The Incarnational Narrative as Historical: Grounds for Belief

C. Stephen Evans

Published in print: 1996-04-18

The last chapter looked at two-stage evidentialist apologetics, and examined some of the problems that face this approach to the incarnational narrative. Although it was argued that these problems do not mean that an evidentialist argument cannot be effective, they do provide good reason to examine an alternative theological account, one that lays stress on our knowledge of the historical Jesus as made possible through the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit, and makes evidence less central to the story. This alternative to the standard apologetic approach to incarnational knowledge is called here the Reformed account, since it is seen most clearly and prominently in the works of Protestant, and especially Reformed, theologians. For Reformed thinkers the historical knowledge that can be part of saving faith is derived from the Bible, and thus, the question of how we have such knowledge is basically the question of how we can know the Bible is the reliable revelation from God it is claimed to be by the Church; the Reformed creeds assert unanimously that this knowledge is due to the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The different sections of the chapter are: the Reformed emphasis on the testimony of the Holy Spirit; the epistemology of the Reformed account; epistemology supernaturalized; how can one know that a belief has a truth-conducive ground?; criteria for recognizing the work of the spirit; and, problems with the Reformed account.

This book contributes to studies on the development of Calvinism and Reformed Theology in the post-Reformation era and on later English Puritanism as it transitioned into Dissent. Beginning with the ...
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This book contributes to studies on the development of Calvinism and Reformed Theology in the post-Reformation era and on later English Puritanism as it transitioned into Dissent. Beginning with the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 and carrying the story into the early eighteenth century, it places theological developments in the context of the early Enlightenment and of conflict between Dissent and the Church of England. The book focuses on five individuals and groups who pursued different emphases in their promotion of Calvinist piety and theology and who in the variety of their responses to challenges of their time raise questions about conventional interpretations of Calvinism in that period. After a first chapter that establishes context and framework, successive chapters describe and analyze the mystical Calvinism of Peter Sterry, the hermetist Calvinism of Theophilus Gale, the evangelical Calvinism of Joseph Alleine and his promoters, the Calvinist natural theology of Richard Baxter, William Bates, and John Howe, and the Church of England Calvinism of John Edwards. These different approaches taken together represent Calvinist variety; and in each case there was not only the persistence of an earlier Calvinist trajectory, but also transformation of the Reformed heritage into newer modes of thinking and acting. As a whole, the book illuminates the religious and intellectual history of the era between the Reformation and modernity.Less

Shapers of English Calvinism, 1660–1714 : Variety, Persistence, and Transformation

Dewey D. Wallace

Published in print: 2011-05-30

This book contributes to studies on the development of Calvinism and Reformed Theology in the post-Reformation era and on later English Puritanism as it transitioned into Dissent. Beginning with the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 and carrying the story into the early eighteenth century, it places theological developments in the context of the early Enlightenment and of conflict between Dissent and the Church of England. The book focuses on five individuals and groups who pursued different emphases in their promotion of Calvinist piety and theology and who in the variety of their responses to challenges of their time raise questions about conventional interpretations of Calvinism in that period. After a first chapter that establishes context and framework, successive chapters describe and analyze the mystical Calvinism of Peter Sterry, the hermetist Calvinism of Theophilus Gale, the evangelical Calvinism of Joseph Alleine and his promoters, the Calvinist natural theology of Richard Baxter, William Bates, and John Howe, and the Church of England Calvinism of John Edwards. These different approaches taken together represent Calvinist variety; and in each case there was not only the persistence of an earlier Calvinist trajectory, but also transformation of the Reformed heritage into newer modes of thinking and acting. As a whole, the book illuminates the religious and intellectual history of the era between the Reformation and modernity.

The overwhelming predominance of the federal theology in Puritan thinking and Puritanism's emphasis on duty must have something to do with the ‘Puritan-Presbyterian character’, with its emphasis upon ...
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The overwhelming predominance of the federal theology in Puritan thinking and Puritanism's emphasis on duty must have something to do with the ‘Puritan-Presbyterian character’, with its emphasis upon diligence, duty, and discipline. However, the seeds of the federal theology are not to be found in ethics or morals; it only affected these areas. Its origin and rise must be seen within the context of the flow of the history of Reformed theology in the 16th and 17th centuries. Two questions plagued the Reformed Churches of Europe and later of New England: the question of predestination and the question of the sacraments. It is out of the questions concerning predestination that the federal theology flowed, for one of the great themes of the 16th-century intellectual thought is that of theodicy.Less

Conclusion

David A. Weir

Published in print: 1990-03-01

The overwhelming predominance of the federal theology in Puritan thinking and Puritanism's emphasis on duty must have something to do with the ‘Puritan-Presbyterian character’, with its emphasis upon diligence, duty, and discipline. However, the seeds of the federal theology are not to be found in ethics or morals; it only affected these areas. Its origin and rise must be seen within the context of the flow of the history of Reformed theology in the 16th and 17th centuries. Two questions plagued the Reformed Churches of Europe and later of New England: the question of predestination and the question of the sacraments. It is out of the questions concerning predestination that the federal theology flowed, for one of the great themes of the 16th-century intellectual thought is that of theodicy.

The idea of a prelapsarian covenant is not an absolute novelty in the history of Christian doctrine, but it was not utilised extensively in Reformed theology until the second half of the 16th ...
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The idea of a prelapsarian covenant is not an absolute novelty in the history of Christian doctrine, but it was not utilised extensively in Reformed theology until the second half of the 16th century. There is no evidence of its use during the early Reformation. Zacharias Ursinus is the theologian who first utilized the idea of a prelapsarian covenant to any great extent in the 16th century. This chapter explores Ursinus's doctrine of the covenant, particularly the prelapsarian covenant, and examines it within the context of his doctrine of predestination. Ursinus's Opera theologica were published in 1612. The editor, Quirinus Reuter, arranged the works in three volumes. The chapter examines the treatises that are significant in Ursinus's discussion of the covenant.Less

The Prelapsarian Covenant as Proposed by Zacharias Ursinus

David A. Weir

Published in print: 1990-03-01

The idea of a prelapsarian covenant is not an absolute novelty in the history of Christian doctrine, but it was not utilised extensively in Reformed theology until the second half of the 16th century. There is no evidence of its use during the early Reformation. Zacharias Ursinus is the theologian who first utilized the idea of a prelapsarian covenant to any great extent in the 16th century. This chapter explores Ursinus's doctrine of the covenant, particularly the prelapsarian covenant, and examines it within the context of his doctrine of predestination. Ursinus's Opera theologica were published in 1612. The editor, Quirinus Reuter, arranged the works in three volumes. The chapter examines the treatises that are significant in Ursinus's discussion of the covenant.